Beauty Among The Thorns
by KVicious
Summary: Shuuhei doesn't particularly care for the humans he's sworn to protect as a shinigami, especially one as annoying as Ayami. After saving her from a Hollow attack, she's suddenly thrust full speed into his life. Whats a man to do?


**WARNING: Contains _major_**** spoilers for entire Soul Society arc.**

**Inspired by the conversation between Ukitake and Shuuhei in chapter 230 over Rukia's friendship with Orihime…  
_"I'm glad." _Ukitake smiles,_ "She's made a good friend."  
"Even if that person…" _Shuuhei hesitates, _"Is human?"_**

**Happy reading:) **  
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When Ukitake taicho suggested that he try and relax a bit more, this wasn't exactly what Hisagi Shuuhei had in mind. Sure, going to the human world and chasing after hollows would help him release some pent-up frustrations surrounding the betrayal of his division's former taicho Tōsen, but… how was this supposed to relax him?

Seeing as he's had to temporarily take over the duties as taicho for the ninth division, he didn't have the time to be here, doing what a lower ranked shinigami is usually assigned to do.

Maybe he was just uneasy because he hadn't been here since the time he lead a group of lowerclassmen on a training mission here to fight dummy hollows during his days at the academy. Somehow the real thing had managed to mask its reiatsu, sneaking into the training session to feed on the barrier team, and caused the scar that now ran down the right side of his face. And to think all that was a part of Aizen's plans. He'd been plotting against Soul Society since the very beginning.

He sighed, staring at the moon from his perch on the rooftop of a building in Karakura. This was a bitch. Everything that had happened in Seireitei up to that point left it in a state of chaos. He wasn't the only one struggling to find some answers. He knew Kira and Rangiku felt just as betrayed as he did, Hinamori however still hadn't come to terms with the fact that her precious Aizen was the cause of the entire mess.

Che. Aizen had fucked with her head _real_ good.

She still wasn't allowed to leave the supervision of the fourth division, being as emotionally unstable as she was. He had no doubts that Hitsugaya taicho was as stressed as he was, having two females to deal with. Hinamori his childhood friend being one, Rangiku his fukutaicho the other.

Rangiku chose to drink away Ichimaru's memory, dragging Kira along with her. Shuuhei would join them, if he wasn't so damn busy. They, along with the third and fifth seats of the eleventh division Ikkaku and Yumichika, as well as Renji when he wasn't training to outdo Kuchiki taicho, were drinking buddies, having always grabbed a drink together when their respective taichos weren't up their asses about work. Shuuhei of course never had it as bad as the others, his former superior was never too keen on asking his subordinates for any favors.

A change in the atmosphere snapped Shuuhei out of his thoughts. A hollow was nearby, he could feel a slight spiritual pressure coming from the east. They'd gotten damn good at concealing themselves lately, the likely culprit flashing through Shuuhei's mind again. Shaking the thoughts from his mind, he forced himself to concentrate.

Where was it?

Hopping from rooftop to rooftop, he began tracking the creature. Wherever it was it certainly wasn't up to any good. Suddenly, a scream pierced through the darkness and Shuuhei's attention snapped to a park to his right.

A hollow had cornered two females, a human woman and the spirit of a little girl, against a bench. The human was wielding a large stick, swinging it at the hollow to keep it at bay.

'Tsk,' Shuuhei thought, 'Like that's really gonna keep it away.'

Flashstepping to the two, he grabbed the human, slinging her across his shoulder and hoisted the spirit up to level with his waist with his other arm, putting the two in a safe spot a good distance away from the hollow before flashstepping back to face the beast.

It growled, angry with him for disrupting his meal, and swiped a claw at Shuuhei barely missing his midsection. He jumped backwards, unsheathing his zanpakuto.

Staring at it coolly, he waited for it to make its next move. When the other claw began making its way toward him he jumped, landing briefly on the hollow's arm before jumping once more, his zanpakuto raised high above his head ready to attack.

He wasn't counting on it having a tail.

Slapped across the face he was slung like a rag doll spinning out of control before he somehow found his footing in the grass and landed on his feet, barely able to keep his balance. The taste of copper in his mouth told him that it'd left a mark.

"Bastard!" he cursed the creature, "if that leaves a scar I'm gonna make it my mission to kill every last one of ya myself." Not that he really cared about his outward appearance, he was just pissed the thing had gotten the better of him.

It had turned its back to Shuuhei and was heading towards the two females. This pissed his off even further. "I don't think so, we aren't done here." He growled, flashstepping once more between the hollow and its targets, his zanpakuto poised ready in his grasp for another attack.

He was airborne again, jumping to the hollows left. It fell for it as Shuuhei quickly switched positions to the right side and sent his zanpakuto victoriously through its mask, the hollow disappearing in an instant, dissolving into nothing.

Shuuhei took a moment to catch his breath and wipe the blood from his forehead, his back still to the girls who were talking quietly amongst themselves.

Next order of business, soul burial.

Paying no mind to the human, he turned and fixed his gaze on the spirit. Sheathing his zanpakuto, he then removed it from the sash around his waist and pointed the hilt end at her.

She was trembling, confused as to why her savior had suddenly turned on her. He smiled at her reassuringly, "Hey, no worries. I'm here to send you to Soul Society."

"And what if she doesn't want to go to this… this _Soul Society_?" the human girl countered, slapping his zanpakuto away and standing between him and the spirit, nose to nose with Shuuhei with a scowl on her face. She had the most _amazing_ pair of bright emerald eyes… Shuuhei snapped to attention suddenly, 'Wait… she can see me?'

"Of course I can see you!" she huffed. Apparently he'd spoken aloud. "Leave her alone, she doesn't want to go anywhere."

"What is Soul Society?" the young spirit asked, curiosity sparking in her own pair of emerald eyes.

"Yuri, stay out of this." The older girl warned fiercely, her gaze never leaving Shuuhei's.

"Soul Society is what you would call Heaven." Shuuhei went on to explain, ignoring the girl in his face and peering over her shoulder at the young spirit, "A place where spirits come to live after their mortal life has ended. I'm here to help you on your journey."

"Over my dead body!"

"This isn't your decision." Shuuhei warned, growing impatient.

"It's okay Ayami… I think… I think I want to go." The spirit was standing beside the older girl now, her transparent hand resting on Ayami's upper arm. She looked up at Shuuhei nervously.

"You can't be serious Yuri!" Ayami exclaimed, "Don't—"

"I wanna see Momma and Poppa again, Aya-chan." Yuri voiced quietly, "I miss them."

The older girls protests went mute as Shuuhei stamped the symbol for 'Soul Society' onto Yuri's forehead with the hilt of his zanpakuto. Feeling her time on Earth fading again and a new chapter opening, Yuri stood on her tiptoes and kissed Ayami's cheek, "We'll meet again someday, ne?" Ayami could only stare at the smiling spirit sadly as she faded slowly away.

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**Reviews/Feedback/Constructive criticism love! Please leave some! Story title and summary tentative, if you want to be sure not to lose track of it, add it to your 'story alerts' list! Thank you for reading! This is my first attempt at Bleach fiction.**

**– _Kerri _aka _KVicious_**


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